ASIS had role in Iraq war claims

Australian intelligence played a key role in presenting controversial claims that aluminium tubes were destined for Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

Last night ABC's Four Corners program revealed that the tubes were ordered by an Australian firm, manufactured by the Chinese parent company of the Australian firm and details of the shipment were passed to the United States by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, leading to its seizure.

The revelations came as the Government rejected comments of Australian weapons expert Brigadier-General Stephen Meekin to The Washington Post.

He said the tubes were innocuous and destined for rocket casings, not nuclear centrifuges.

Defence Minister Robert Hill claimed General Meekin was misquoted.

A shipment of 60,000 tubes was ordered from China by the Australian firm International Aluminium Supply on behalf of a Jordanian company.

The director of IAS, Garry Cordukes, told Four Corners that two days after the shipment left China, his bosses in China said that they had a call from the Chinese Government.

"I'm giving you what was told to me and that was that . . . the US was prepared to take whatever actions necessary to prevent the shipment reaching Jordan," he said

Mr Cordukes subsequently handed over samples of the tubes to unnamed Australian officials.

The consignment never reached Iraq. After information was passed to the US by ASIS it was seized on the dock in Jordan in July 2001. The Bush Administration claimed that the shipment was proof that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.

A former Office of National Assessment analyst, Andrew Wilkie, who resigned shortly before the war started, in protest at the Government's Iraq policy, said the intelligence agencies were quite pleased with themselves for their role in intercepting the aluminum tubes.

"And quite rightly, because they'd played a very important role in what at that stage was one of only two pieces of intelligence to back up the claim that Saddam was trying to reconstitute a nuclear program. It was a gem," he said.

Senator Hill told Parliament that it had not been determined what the aluminium tubes were used for. "Questions about WMD in Iraq are still ongoing and still being analysed by the Iraq Survey Group and we hope to get the final report in due course," he said.

Senator Hill rejected General Meekin's claim that the tubes were innocuous, stating he was misquoted and only "peripherally involved in the investigation of Iraq's WMD program". Other Government officials said he had no expertise in WMD and was only involved in the search for conventional weapons in Iraq.

When The Age asked for an interview with General Meekin to clarify the issue, a Defence Department spokesman said he could not authorise it as "we don't run him as he is part of the Iraq Survey Group" and any request needed US approval.

The survey group is the body charged with investigating Iraq's WMD program.

General Meekin is director-general of technical and scientific assessment for the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

He was quoted as saying that sanctions against Iraq had been effective in preventing the importation of weapons components.